/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-AUSTRALIA: Street Youth Come to Reel Life

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY, Nov 11 2003 (IPS) - The first feature film produced on a shoestring budget by a Vietnamese-born Australian filmmaker has taken the arts film scene here by storm, given its poignant and powerful depiction of the often depressing lives of Australian youngsters who live on the streets.

‘The Finished People’, by Khoa Do, is based on life in Cabaramatta, a suburban Sydney neighbourhood notorious as the centre of the city’s heroin trade and Vietnamese crime gangs.

It tackles the question of homelessness, drugs and crime, which involves both Vietnamese as well as young white Australians.

The film, absorbing though somewhat depressing to some, gives an unvarnished insight into the the lives of these young people.

”It’s not a Hollywood blockbuster type of film. It’s a film with a message to say,” says Khoa Do in an interview. ”It’s about how these street kids are trying to break out of a cycle of homelessness, drugs and crime.”

The film’s characters include Tommy, an addict trying to kick his habit and get a job, Vietnamese-born Van, who sleeps in a rooftop carpark and is befriended by an HIV-positive Anglo-Australian girl. Then there is Des, who dabbles in dealing drugs to support his 17 year old Vietnamese-Australian girlfriend who is pregnant.

This 80-minute film is the first feature film of 24-year-old Khoa Do, who came to Australia when he was two as a refugee with his family.

He says this film is about Australian youth, not just Vietnamese or ethnic youth, and it came out of a video and film making workshop he was commissioned to do with street kids in Cabaramatta.

”The best way to learn filmmaking and video is to go out there and do a video. So we decided to do a product which had something to say,” he explained. ”We also wanted to give audiences a chance to see a world they may not have seen or experienced.”

Though he says he has never seen Mira Nair’s ‘Salam Bombay’ filmed with slum kids of Bombay, ‘The Finished People’ has adopted a similar filmmaking strategy.

‘The Finished People’ was shot on digital video in the streets of Cabaramatta – and stars real street youth. ”You usually have a filmmaker going to an area to work with a particular group of young people whom they select. Ours was different,” explained the filmmaker. ”I was working as a teacher and together through several weeks of workshops we came up with the story. Our main actors were those who showed up in class the most.”

Thus the story was based on the real experiences of the actors themselves or their friends.

Khoa Do also had to draw up the film schedule in such a way so that one of his actors, a former heroin addict, could attend a methadone clinic in the morning. The filming also had to finish early, because another actor who is on remand for armed robbery needed to report to the police station in the evenings. Once a cast member turned up three hours late after overdosing. For the film’s official opening night in October, Khoa Do could not find one of the main actors because he is homeless and pawns his handphone when he runs out of money.

The film has already been shown at the Montreal Film Festival and has received some good reviews after it was released on the film circuit here on Oct. 23.

Its main sponsorship came from a local pub, the Cabaramatta Inn. ”I wanted to help local young people” Ross Treyvaud, owner of the Cabaramatta Inn, tells IPS. ”The state government has been saying that there is a problem in this area and does not provide the resources to tackle it.”

He argues that this project is about telling the story of the young people in the area and demystifying their image as being absorbed in drug abuse. ”This is a powerful film which portray young people in a new light. It’s both powerful and emotive and government decision-makers must see this film,” quips Treyvaud.

”The film’s value as a social document is unquestionable,” argues film critic Andrew Urban. ” It should end up on television, not only to show that television is capable of showing the truth and reality, but also to hold a mirror up to one set of ‘neighbours’ otherwise ignored by the mainstream”.

Khoa Do says that he is encouraged by the positive review the film has received. ”I would like to go on telling stories which mean something to me and at the end of the day make a difference (to the society),” he added.